Phonetic Fun

Tagalog speakers often confuse 'f' and 'p' when they are speaking English. Tagalog doesn't have an 'f' sound. So Emily knows that we live in the "Philippines" if we speak English, but we live in the "Pilipines" if we speak Tagalog. Most Tagalog speakers know that they need to make the 'f' sound when speaking English, so often what you find is that they 'overproduce' the 'f', and use it even when it genuinely is a 'p' sound in English. So while a very good English speaker would have 'pork on a fork', a Tagalog novice English speaker might have 'pork on a pork' or if they're trying really hard, they might have 'fork on a fork'. One could just as easily hear 'fork on a pork'.

Tagalog speakers also have trouble saying the "open a" sound, as in 'hat' or 'mat'. They instead use a 'darker a' sound, like we find in 'father' or 'car'. So 'hat' can sometimes end up sounding a bit like 'hot' or 'hut' if you aren't paying too much attention, and 'bag' like 'bug'.

While none of this usually causes too much confusion, especially if there is a clear context for the conversation, the other day I did do a double-take. Zoe had had a friend over for playtime, and she came with her Filipina 'yaya' (nanny). They had been playing for a while, and there was a big mess in the living room. When it was time to start leaving, The yaya was wanting to encourage the child to clean away the toys. What she aimed at saying was

'Come on, help me "pack up" the toys',

but what came out was something quite different!